Counting down the days to Swear-In!

And I'm back to civilization for another few days. We had a really great, meaningful last 10 days in our homestay village. The emphasis switched from language acquisition to health technical training and the other trainees and I did lots more hands-on activities. One day we conducted a baby weighing session. One way we are encouraged to monitor malnutrition in our villages is by asking mothers to bring their babies to the health center once a week so we can monitor their growth. Based off of their age and weight, we're given charts to determine whether or not the baby is green (healthy), yellow (moderately malnourished), or red (severely malnourished). After the baby is weighed, based on the child's color, we give the mother advice. Usually we just say the baby should exclusively breast feed until 6 months. After 6 months, the mom can start weaning the child slowly by introducing soft foods. There are cultural beliefs/practices that keep women from continuing to breast feed for six months. For example, many women will stop breast feeding if they become pregnant again because they believe it is harmful for their unborn baby. This is especially common in Mali because not many people practice birth spacing. Anyways, out of the 40 or so babies we weighed, over half were moderately malnourished and three were severely malnourished. We did our best to advise the mothers (in Bambara) - I think mostly they were just amused by our discomfort trying to hold the babies and put them onto our makeshift scale.

Another day we did a demonstration of how to make ameliorated porridge. Most families have porridge for breakfast but it's not very nutrient rich. If they add peanut powder, or corn powder, or a number of other ingredients they could greatly increase their children's vitamin intake. I loved this activity because my host mom showed up with all of my little host siblings and was really active helping with the demonstration - made me feel proud. And so happy they were there supporting me.

We also did what Peace Corps calls an "animation," which is basically just an informal chat about some health topic. We gathered six women together and had an interactive presentation about exclusive breast-feeding, proper weaning methods, and Mali's three food groups.

As for other stories from the week... A chicken got locked in my room. There are tons of animals that hang in my compound and somehow a chicken wandered into my room. The door shut behind it and all of a sudden I heard this loud commotion as the bird freaked out trying to leave. We also had our final language test. Each trainee has to score at 'intermediate-mid' in their language (mine is Bambara) to be sworn in as a volunteer. Funny story, after 6 years of french, I only scored intermediate mid when I had my french test early on in training. So apparently now my french is as good as my Bambara. Don't think that speaks very well of my french...just so happy to have the language test out of the way. Language is going to be a struggle for the next two years but at least now I've got some basics.

Leaving the village/saying goodye to our host families was kind of sad but also really satisfying. We all bought gifts to give to our families. I gave my host moms each fabric, soap and sugar, gave my host grandmother kola nuts (old people love them here - lots of caffeine), and then a bunch of cookies, American candy, and stickers for all my host siblings. Oh and I gave my host brother a deck of cards. Anyways, so when I presented my family with their gifts, they started dancing and singing in our compound. They were in a circle and pulled me into the center. Made me feel special. And then I was blessed about a thousand times. Was a great end to these two months with them. Hopefully I'll be able to come back and visit.

So now we're back at the training center until our swear-in ceremony on September 3. We'll be dressing up in Malian clothes and going to the American Embassy in Bamako to read an oath and become official volunteers. The ceremony is followed by dinner and a night out in Bamako and I am so excited!! Think I'll get to feel like a real person again. That's pretty much it for now except thank you to the Middletons and the Newlons for your fantastic package!!! Really made my day. I'll be putting your card up on my wall in my new apartment :)

And thanks to everyone for your continued support!! Just about done with training, a big milestone in my book!